In this June 10, 2014, file photo, Guahan Academy Charter School kindergarten students in a promotional ceremony. Pacific Daily News file photo

The Guahan Academy Charter School -- the island's first charter school -- continues to face challenges in its second year of operations. It's clear that local education and elected officials must do more to help.

Last school year, the start of classes at the charter school was delayed because of bureaucratic red tape and struggles to secure a site and budget. The education department then decided the charter school wouldn't be allowed to use the services of school cafeteria.

The latest challenge: a $300,000 federal grant is being withheld because a lease agreement for the school's facilities still isn't in place. The Calvo administration and the Guam Department of Education must move with urgency to rectify this situation.

The Guahan Academy Charter School provides its 500 students with the same programs and services public schools get -- buses provided by the Department of Public Works, services for students with special needs and English as a second language needs, etc. The school uses Direct Instruction as its core curriculum.

DOE and elected officials must help the Guahan Academy Charter School -- and other future charter schools -- succeed and must end these roadblocks.

The purpose of the charter school law is to give parents an option for their children's education other than the public school system, which has done a poor job at providing an adequate education. Charter schools are supposed to offer different ways of learning, and offer hope for long-overdue improvements to the quality of public education.

For this to happen, charter schools must be given a fair chance. That means ensuring charter schools are given adequate budgets, and the same access to resources and services that other public schools rely on. Charter schools must be treated the same as other public schools because they are public schools.

And there needs to be a very clear, systemic way to get new charter schools started, and that process needs to ensure future charter schools don't face the same struggles, challenges and roadblocks the first charter school has faced, and continues to face.?

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Support: Charter schools need to be granted a fair chance at succeeding

The Guahan Academy Charter School -- the island's first charter school -- continues to face challenges in its second year of operations. It's clear that local education and elected officials must do